Daily Current affairs - August 15th, 2017 for all competitive exams
Independence Day is an
annual observance celebrated every year on 15th of August. India’s Independence
Day is a day of great significance for the people of India.
- At this day India got freedom from the British rule
after long years of slavery.
- It has been declared as the National and Gazetted
Holiday all across the India in order to independently commemorate the
independence of the country from British Empire on 15th of August in 1947.
PM Narendra Modi Launches
Website To Honour Gallantry Award Winners Since Independence
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
launched a website to honour all the gallantry award winners since
Independence.
- The portal will preserve and tell the stories of our
bravest men and women, civilians as well as armed forces personnel".
- In remembrance of our heroes who have been awarded
gallantry awards since Independence, launched the site
http://gallantryawards.gov.in
Article 35A comes under
scrutiny
The question whether Article
35A, relating to special rights and privileges of the citizens of Jammu and
Kashmir, is ultra vires of the Constitution or not is likely to head for a
decision before a five-judge Constitution Bench.
- The petition said Article 35A protects certain
provisions of the J&K Constitution which denies property rights to
native women who marry from outside the State. The denial of these rights
extend to her children also.
India’s first railways
disaster management centre to come up near Bengaluru
Trains falling into rivers
and coaches catching fire will be common sights in the country’s first
‘railways disaster management village’ expected to come up on the outskirts of
Bengaluru by December next year.
- The railways has earmarked the 3.32 sq km village of
Hejjala, with a population of 3,483 people, to develop its Disaster
Management Institute and Safety village at a cost of Rs44.42 crore
- The focus is on imparting state of the art training
on rescue, medical relief and rolling stock restoration techniques in a
classroom and also using various simulated teaching aids. However, it is
the practical reproduction of accidents on site and the ensuing rescue
operations that are being touted as the big ticket venture.
Tamilnadu submits draft
ordinance to Centre
Tamil Nadu’s bid to get
exemption from NEET-based admissions to undergraduate medical degree
programmes, an official team led by State Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan
submitted a draft ordinance to the Centre to facilitate the same.
- The Union Home Ministry said that it was examining
the draft ordinance proposed by the Tamil Nadu government seeking one-time
exemption to admit MBSS/BDS aspirants based on their Plus Two scores for
seats in government medical colleges and government quota seats in private
colleges for this year alone.
Lord Krishna-themed coin to be
released by Chad on Janmashtami
A limited edition silver
coin on Lord Krishna will be released on Janmashtami on August 15 by the
Republic of Chad in commemoration of the 5,244th birth anniversary of the Hindu
God
- This full-dimensional 3D coin weighs 100 grams and
has been made of pure silver, numismatist Alok K Goyal, the designer of
the coin
- There will be 251 pieces made available for sale in
the Indian market out of a total of 501. People who want to buy it have to
do it online on www.headytail.com. The price has been kept at Rs 25,555
per coin with free shipping within India.
China bans imports from N.
Korea
China will halt iron, iron
ore and seafood imports from North Korea starting August 15, 2017, following
through on new UN sanctions after U.S. pressure for Beijing to strong arm
Pyongyang over its ally’s nuclear programme.
- The decision was announced after days of
increasingly bellicose rhetoric between U.S. President Donald Trump and
Kim Jong-un’s regime, which has raised international alarm about where the
crisis is headed.
- The United Nations Security Council, including
permanent member Beijing, approved tough sanctions against Pyongyang on
August 6 that could cost the country $1 billion a year.
Largest volcanic region on
earth lies in Antartica
The largest volcanic region
on Earth — with nearly 100 volcanoes — has been discovered two km below the
surface of the vast ice sheet in west Antarctica.
- Researchers from the University of Edinburgh in
Britain found a staggering 91 previously unknown volcanoes, adding to the
47 others that had been discovered over the previous century of exploring
the region.
- The height of these newly discovered volcanoes range
from 100 to 3,850 metres, with the highest almost as tall as Switzerland’s
3,970-metre Eiger mountain.
- These active peaks are concentrated in a region
known as the west Antarctic rift system — which stretches 3,500 km from
Antarctica’s Ross ice shelf to the Antarctic peninsula.
First South Asian Youth Summit
to be held in India
The first South Asian Youth
Summit-2017 is all set to be organised in the Bhubaneswar City of Indian state
of Odisha from September 17.
- The four-day Summit would focus on a wide range of
problems being faced by youths of South Asia and discuss their solutions
- Ministers of all eight SAARC member countries would
participate in the Summit to discuss culture, tourism, peace and
infrastructure development in South Asia as well as sustainable
development goal adopted by the United Nations.
Google voice search in eight
more languages
Google has unveiled its
voice search facility in eight additional Indian languages.
The latest move was part of
its efforts to help solve the challenge for India’s next billion users.
- The new languages include Bengali, Gujarati,
Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu.
- Speakers of these languages will be able to use
their voice to dictate queries — both in Gboard on Android as well as in
Search through the Google App.
Retail, WPI inflation
accelerate
Retail inflation as measured
by the consumer price index (CPI) accelerated to 2.36% in July after easing for
three straight months.
- The gains in retail prices were driven by a
hardening of prices in sugar and confectionery items, pan, tobacco and
intoxicants. However, there was disinflation in the food basket.
- Skyrocketing tomato prices propelled inflation at
the wholesale level to 1.88% in July from 0.9% in June, with the food
category overall contributing significantly to the uptick in WPI terms.
Tata Motors Group appoints
P.B. Balaji as CFO
Automobile major Tata Motors
announced the appointment of finance professional P.B. Balaji as the group’s
new Chief Financial Officer from November 2017.
- Balaji’s appointment is expected to drive financial
performance and bring greater vigour to operations and investment
decisions across the different entities.
- Balaji is a global finance professional with over
two decades of experience in the corporate sector.
- He started his career with Unilever in 1995 and
worked in different corporate finance roles across Asian markets,
Switzerland, UK and India. Since 2014, he has been heading the finance
function as the Chief Financial Officer of Hindustan Unilever, a $6
billion enterprise.
Japanese economist wins award
The Japan Society of
Economic Statistics (JSES) presented its 2017 Award to Jun-ichi Okabe,
professor, Yokohama National University, for the book “A New Statistical Domain
in India: An Enquiry into Village Panchayat Databases”, which he co-authored
with Aparajita Bakshi .
- The book draws on fieldwork in Warwat Khanderao
village, Buldhana district, Maharashtra, and Raina village, Bardhaman
district, West Bengal.
Marconi Lifetime Award for
Pune-born Stanford Prof
The US-based Marconi Society
has announced its Lifetime Achievement Award to Indian-born Stanford University
professor Thomas Kailath, for his outstanding contributions to modern
communications.
- Kailath is the sixth scientist to be honoured with
our Lifetime Achievement Award for his research contributions, which
advanced modern communications technologies over the last six decades,
- The society named after Nobel Laureate Guglielmo
Marconi (1874-1937), who invented the radio, was set up in 1975 by his
daughter Gioia Marconi Braga through an endowment. It annually awards
individuals whose scope of work and influence emulate the principle of
"creativity in service to humanity" that inspired Marconi.
Zverev beats Federer in
Montreal masters Final
Alexander Zverev shocked
second seed Roger Federer in straight sets in the Montreal Masters final to win
his fifth title of the season.
- Zverev, meanwhile, will play doubles at Cincinnati partnering Leander Paes.
